Obsidian Eyes
by Acadjonne d'la Baie
Summary: In which Hide finds out what's been going on with Kaneki lately.
Touka didn't like Kaneki's little "human" friend, and she probably should have been more ashamed by the fact that he knew. But oh-so-precious Hide was a Grimm, and it was only a matter of time before he found out about and dealt with the Anteiku ghouls. He already knew Touka herself was a ghoul; he'd seen her, she was sure. And when he found out about Kaneki, childhood friends or not, heads would roll. That was part of the reason Touka was teaching Kaneki to fight; Grimms were brutal, had few morals, and took more blows to take down than the average human.

Hide was the first Grimm Touka had ever met in person, but she knew better than to be fooled by his goofy grin and outgoing personality. Touka's mother had died at the hands of a Grimm who worked with the CCG; she suspected her father's killer may well have been the same agent. Her father had begun to teach Touka and her brother about Grimms shortly before he died. He'd explained to them how a Grimm could see them; if a ghoul was overly hungry or feeling certain emotions, then the Grimm would see their Kakugan even if normal humans couldn't. He'd also sometimes addressed Grimms by an odd name, something German, and said they were ruthless. They'd kill not only any ghouls they saw, but also any of the sub-human wesen species, their only needed provocation being to sight them hiding among humans.

Kaneki was currently, as usual, lost in thought, and Touka wouldn't need to guess what it was weighing so much on his mind. Ever since Nishiki had attacked them, Kaneki had been weighing over the pros and cons of telling Hide he was a ghoul. It was obvious Kaneki didn't know Hide was a Grimm if he contemplated this. Touka almost wanted to tell him about how dangerous his friend really was, but decided it was Kaneki's problem.

Soon enough, Kaneki's shift ended, and he got ready to go home. He wasn't staying to train with Touka tonight because he had promised to help Hide with an Asian History project of some sort. Touka suspected Kaneki may also try to tell Hide about being a ghoul. Just before Kaneki could leave, Touka spoke up.

"Don't tell Hide you're a ghoul." she told him. Kaneki's head snapped back to look at her.

"W-what?" Kaneki stuttered.

"Don't tell Hide you're a ghoul," Touka repeated. "If you do, then I'll kill him." Kaneki, thoroughly scared for his friend's life, nodded hastily before rushing off, out Anteiku's front door and towards his apartment.

When Kaneki got home, he hung up his bag and his jacket, then quickly moved to take off his eyepatch. It was a bit of a relief to actually be able to see out of both eyes for once.

It had been Touka who'd suggested trying to practice controlling his Kakugan whenever he was home alone, and he could definitely see the logic in it. He'd only tried it two or three times so far, but it had yet to yield any results.

Setting his eyepatch on the coffee table in front of the couch, Kaneki pulled his phone from his pocket. Quickly unlocking it, he noticed he had two unread messages.

 _Hide_

 _17:55_

 _Hey, might be a bit late, something came up_

 _Hide_

 _17:55_

 _I'll be there 8 at the latest_

Nodding to himself, Kaneki replied with an affirmative before heading to the bathroom to shower and change out of his Anteiku uniform, forgetting his eyepatch on the table.

Kaneki was in the middle of making himself some coffee when there was a knock at the door, and he rushed over to open it. Hide stepped through, closing it behind him. He turned back towards Kaneki in the middle of a greeting, and their eyes locked. And then-

It was as if Hide's pupils had swallowed his eyes whole, leaving behind a pure, reflective black surface. Kaneki could see himself in them, even as Hide took a step back and yelped when the doorknob jabbed into the small of his back. It was like looking into a mirror; Kaneki was practically looking himself in the eyes, wide and scared, single Kakugan activated. A part of his brain screamed at him to get as far as physically possible from Hide, while a little voice told him to do something, before Hide ran away, or reported him to the CCG, and _Touka was going to kill him_.

Without even giving Hide a chance to react, Kaneki ran off, locking his bedroom door behind him and sinking pathetically to the floor with tears in his eyes.

The slamming of Kaneki's bedroom door brought Hide out of his stupor, and his feet silently brought him to stand in front of it. From the other side, he could hear Kaneki crying, and part of him couldn't help but feel this was all Hide's fault.

It had been a surprise, seeing Kaneki like that, though he'd had his suspicions. It wasn't as if Hide hadn't noticed the changes after Kaneki had come back from the hospital after Rize, since his powers all but ensured he noticed more than most people. He'd noticed when Kaneki had all but stopped eating. He'd noticed how Kaneki could suddenly take his coffee as black as his hair with nothing in it, when before he'd cut it with copious amounts of cream. And during the fight with Nishiki, he'd been more conscious then he'd let on. Not to mention Kaneki's new job at Anteiku, which Hide knew was a ghoul hangout.

Hide leaned his forehead against Kaneki's door, just resting there for a moment, before he spoke. "Kaneki," he waited a moment, but there was no answer. "Kaneki, I'm sorry."

He thought he wasn't going to get an answer, but a few moments later, after Hide had stepped away from the door, it opened just a crack. On the other side of the door, Kaneki's right eye was visible, brimming full of tears. The sight caused a pang in Hide's chest.

"What are you sorry for?" Kaneki asks, and the fact that he seemed to genuinely be wondering why Hide was apologizing was just a painful reminder of how fucked up his friend's life is.

Still, this had been a long time coming, and Hide wanted to explain as much about himself as he could. "A lot of things. For not telling you about me. For not realizing sooner. For not helping you adjust to any of this. For not warning you about Rize. For all of it."

The door opens further this time, and before he knows it Hide's got an armful of Kaneki Ken. "It's not your fault, Hide," he choked out, and Hide hated how he could hear the tears in his voice.

"It's more my fault than it is yours, Kaneki. If I hadn't kept my mouth shut, if I'd just said something-"

Kaneki squeezed him tighter, cut him off in the middle. "Hide, none of this was your fault. I was the one who should have realized what Rize really was. If anyone's to blame, it's me. I got myself into this mess."

There went that pang in Hide's chest again. How he wished he could make Kaneki see how much he meant to Hide, how innocent he was in all of this. It wasn't Kaneki's fault, not even a little bit, but the raven didn't seem to believe so.

"If it's anyone's fault, it's Rize's." Hide says silently, almost sure that Kaneki didn't hear him. The two stand there for a while in silence, just hugging, and Hide took it as a mutual agreement to forever blame Rize for making Kaneki the way he is. He couldn't help but think of how glad he was the bitch was dead.

Kaneki himself took their silence to think back to what had happened a few minutes prior. If he didn't know any better, he'd have assumed Hide was a ghoul like him, but the differences were there. Ghouls never revealed themselves like that to others, and their eyes didn't look like Hide's had, or change in the same way. Hide's pupils had dilated to an impossible degree, and they were completely black, lacking the red irises of a ghoul. They also didn't have the characteristic red veins in the skin around the eyes that a ghoul with an activated Kakugan did.

"Hide," Kaneki eventually asked, "what was that?" He didn't need to continue for Hide to know what he meant.

"You mean when I saw you?" Hide confirmed. Kaneki nodded softly against his chest. As much as Hide liked the warmth, he pulled away to begin his explanation, his best smile visible on his face.

"Nice to meet you! My name's Nagachika Hideyoshi, but you can call me Hide. I enjoy music, hanging out with my best friend, and I'm a Grimm!"


End file.
